diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index fca7680..3f5903a 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ set(headers
     src/lockingqueue.h
     src/recursivelockhelper.h
     src/taskutils.h
+    src/tickchrono.h
     src/wrappers/binary_semaphore.h
     src/wrappers/counting_semaphore.h
     src/wrappers/event_group.h
@@ -19,7 +20,8 @@ set(headers
 
 set(sources
     src/asyncudplistener.cpp
+    src/espchrono_impl.cpp
     src/taskutils.cpp
 )
 
-idf_component_register(INCLUDE_DIRS src SRCS ${headers} ${sources} REQUIRES freertos esp_system esp_http_client esp_websocket_client cpputils lwip)
+idf_component_register(INCLUDE_DIRS src SRCS ${headers} ${sources} REQUIRES freertos esp_system esp_http_client esp_websocket_client lwip cpputils espchrono)
diff --git a/src/espchrono_impl.cpp b/src/espchrono_impl.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..48d4509
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/espchrono_impl.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+// local includes
+#include "espchrono.h"
+
+// system includes
+#include <time.h>
+
+// esp-idf inlcludes
+#include <esp_timer.h>
+
+using namespace std::chrono_literals;
+
+// actual implementations used on the ESP32
+
+auto espchrono::utc_clock::now() noexcept -> time_point
+{
+    timeval tv;
+    gettimeofday(&tv, NULL);
+    seconds32 seconds{tv.tv_sec};
+    return time_point{seconds};
+}
+
+auto espchrono::millis_clock::now() noexcept -> time_point
+{
+    return time_point{std::chrono::floor<duration>(std::chrono::microseconds{esp_timer_get_time()})};
+}
diff --git a/src/tickchrono.h b/src/tickchrono.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f883ea4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/tickchrono.h
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#pragma once
+
+// system includes
+#include <chrono>
+#include <ratio>
+
+// esp-idf includes
+#include <freertos/FreeRTOS.h>
+#include <freertos/projdefs.h>
+
+namespace espcpputils {
+
+using ticks = std::chrono::duration<TickType_t, std::ratio<1, configTICK_RATE_HZ>>;
+
+static_assert(pdMS_TO_TICKS(1000) == ticks(std::chrono::seconds(1)).count());
+static_assert(pdMS_TO_TICKS(100) == std::chrono::floor<ticks>(std::chrono::milliseconds(100)).count());
+static_assert(pdMS_TO_TICKS(10) == std::chrono::floor<ticks>(std::chrono::milliseconds(10)).count());
+
+} // namespace espcpputils
+